Government Engagement Specialist - Baghdad

The International Rescue Committee responds to the world’s worst humanitarian crises and helps people to survive and rebuild their lives. Founded in 1933 at the request of Albert Einstein, IRC offers life-saving care and life-changing assistance to refugees forced to flee from war or disaster. At work today in more than 40 countries and in 22 U.S. cities, IRC restores safety, dignity and hope to millions who are uprooted by conflict or disaster. IRC leads the way from harm to home.

CONTEXTUAL BACKGROUND:

The IRC Iraq program was established in 2003 and is currently operating programs in the Kurdistan Region and Federal Iraq. The IRC is currently providing humanitarian assistance in the sectors of child protection, women’s protection and empowerment, general protection (protection monitoring and legal assistance), education, cash and livelihoods across seven governorates in Iraq. The IRC Iraq’s main office is based in Erbil, with field offices in Baghdad, Mosul, Ramadi, Tikrit, Kirkuk and program offices in western Anbar and Sinjar.

Job Overview/Summary:

The Government Engagement Specialist (GES) plays a key role in the IRC Iraq’s efforts to facilitate principled engagement and strengthen partnership with government. The GES’s efforts will promote more responsive, effective and sustainable programs that deliver better outcomes for the people the IRC serves in Iraq. The GES is responsible for strengthening IRC’s understanding of the strategies and priorities of the Government of Iraq; relevant government ministries and agencies; and governorate and district administrations. The GES will support engagement and relationship building between the IRC and these stakeholders, and facilitate and guide efforts to build collaborative partnerships. The GES will also contribute to efforts to build collaborative partnerships with Iraqi civil society organizations that complement and integrate with IRC’s government partnerships.

Major Responsibilities:

Responsibilities Specific to Role

• Work with the Country Director, Advocacy, Policy and Comms (PAC) Coordinator, Deputy Director for Programs, Grants and Partnerships Coordinator, and technical programme coordinators to identify government agencies and local government departments relevant to the IRC’s priority outcome areas and programs and based on the Strategy 100 Action plan for Iraq.
• Identify and analyze the strategies and priorities of those relevant government agencies and local government, and work with technical programme coordinators to identify shared objectives and priorities.
• Develop engagement strategies for each of the relevant government agencies and local government.
• Facilitate engagement and relationship building between the IRC and the relevant government agencies and local government based on the engagement strategies.
• Support the PAC Coordinator, technical coordinators and the Grants and Partnerships Coordinator to engage with relevant government agencies and local government to explore opportunities to collaborate to achieve shared objectives including for new business development opportunities.
• Guide technical coordinators in the effective delivery of programs in partnership with relevant government agencies and local government.
• Provide ongoing liaison with relevant government agencies during program delivery, soliciting partner feedback and perspectives.
• Identify opportunities for the IRC to support relevant government agencies and local government to achieve their capacity strengthening priorities, and guide efforts to deliver responsive capacity strengthening support.
• Identify opportunities for the IRC to positively influence the strategies and priorities of relevant government agencies and local government, both through the development and implementation of successful program models, as well as through other forms of advocacy, in collaboration with the relevant technical coordinator and the Advocacy Advisor.
• Foster open, two-way communication and feedback between the IRC and relevant government agencies and local government throughout the partnership relationship.
• Identify opportunities and contribute to efforts to build collaborative partnerships with Iraqi civil society organizations that complement and integrate with IRC’s government partnerships.

Responsibilities to Participate and Contribute to Relevant IRC Processes

• Support stakeholder analysis, partner identification, and collaborative program design as it relates to the IRC’s government partnerships.
• As a component of SAP, support the technical programme coordinators to develop partnership strategies as they relate to government partnerships for each outcome area based on a robust stakeholder analysis.
• Support efforts Programme Coordinators to explore with relevant government partners potential capacity strengthening support, including system strengthening, trainings and overall organizational development - and identify requisite resources
• Participate in Partnership Opening, Review and Closing Meetings, where projects involve partnerships with government.
• Contribute to efforts to ensure that supported government partner projects abide by humanitarian principles and sector principles and standards.

National and Regional Media

• Monitor national and regional media to identify and analyse events and trends that may impact on IRC’s country operations.
• To build and maintain relationships with national media outlets and develop a database of media contacts to promote the successful partnerships between IRC and the government.
• Map the national media landscape, identifying the major traditional and digital media outlets and their readerships.
• Draft and publish press releases pertaining to IRC’s country activities.

Key Working Relationships:

Position Reports to: Policy, Advocacy and Communication Coordinator
Position directly supervises: N/A

Other Internal and/or external contacts: the position regularly corresponds and attends meetings with external and internal audiences, thus a strong ability to communicate and maintain positive working relationships is highly desirable for this position.

Internal: Technical Programme Coordinators, Grants and Partnerships Department Staff, Baghdad Fielf Coordinator, Finance team, Supply Chain team, Access and Security Coordinator, Regional Communications

External: Relevant government ministries and agencies; and governorate and district administrations; and other relevant stakeholders, national media